"Civil rights group sues Meta over racially discriminatory college marketing ad claims", 13 February 2025.

The organization Equal Rights Center (ERC) filed a lawsuit against Meta on Tuesday alleging that it unlawfully discriminated against Black Facebook and Instagram users by disproportionately advertising for-profit colleges and universities to Black users, while marketing public colleges and universities to white users.

ERC argued in its complaint that Meta’s discriminatory marketing practices were unlawful because they violated both the District of Columbia Human Rights Act (DCHRA) and the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA). The civil rights organization asserted that Meta collected data from third party sites and apps — including race demographic information from the ACT college entrance exam site—and from its own Facebook and Instagram to analyze user behavior. Meta then used that data to create personalized ads for users based on their website, app, and social media use.

Meta’s marketing strategies have been particularly harmful to Black communities, according to ERC, because Meta denied Black users the chance to explore public college and university opportunities while they promoted such opportunities to white users...

In addition to unlawfully discriminating against Black users, ERC says that Meta has also engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices in violation of the CPPA. Specifically, the complaint accused Meta of promising to deliver users a “valuable and relevant personalized” ad experience when it has instead “[made] ad delivery decisions based on race.”...

Meta explains in its marketing policy how it uses tools called Meta Pixel and Facebook SDK to amass user data from businesses. This data supplies Meta with information about user website interactions, purchases, and app usage. Facebook states that it uses that data to cultivate a personalized experience by showing users ads, topics, and events that match their online activity...

Digital redlining has surged in recent years, causing human rights groups to spearhead projects aimed at combating digital discrimination, such as the Digital Justice Initiative. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called this practice the “new frontier of discrimination” in that online ad-targeting has been shown to mirror societal disparities that have historically prevented certain communities from accessing opportunities afforded to other groups...

The groups have emphasized that redlining is illegal both on and offline, and that tech giants should be held to the same Constitutional standards as they would be offline.